Nami-Nami Easter brunch 2017

 Easter was on April 16th this year and of course we had friends over for our traditional Easter brunch on that day. Here's what we served :)

There was duck with pomegranate seeds and mint - a recipe from Nigella Lawson's book "Nigella Express" (2007; recipe in Estonian here). 

There was carrot and sunflower seed salad - a recipe from now-defunct blog "Our Four Forks", who had adapted it from "The Rose Bakery" cookbook (recipe in Estonian here):

I made a salad with sweet potato and feta cheese (recipe in Estonian here):

For our main dish this year, I baked a leg of lamb with rosemary and juniper berries, inspired by this BBC recipe:

I baked a large cottage cheese and Väasterbottensost cheese tart:

Our friend Liisa contributed this cheese quiche:

One of my staple crostini recipes for years now - and for years to come - is this little thing from Tesco UK - Brie and grape crostini. Goes beautifully with wine, by the way, and can bridge the savoury and sweet courses:

Of course, there was pashka - this time made by our friend Kristiina: 

Hope you all had a lovely Easter with your friends and family.

From the archives:

We've hosted an Easter brunch for friends annually since 2007 (I moved back home to Estonia and in with K. from Scotland in October 2006, so it's 'our thing'). I see I have a lot of catching up to do :)

• Easter brunch 2024
• Easter brunch 2023
• Easter brunch 2022 - just a small family gathering for a change
• Easter brunch 2021
• Easter brunch 2020
• Easter brunch 2019
• Easter brunch 2018
• Easter brunch 2017
• Easter brunch 2016
• Easter brunch 2015
• Easter brunch 2014
• Easter brunch 2013
• Easter brunch 2012 
• Easter brunch 2011
• Easter brunch 2010
• Easter brunch 2009
• Easter brunch 2008
• Easter brunch 2007

TOP 10 highlights from my trip to Australia in January 2017

I'm a slow girl, a typical northener, you see. Back in January I had the opportunity to visit Australia, courtesy of the Australian winemaker, Jacob's Creek, and it's probably about time I shared some of the highlights from that whirlwind tour.

First of all, I almost didn't go, meaning I almost turned down the offer to visit. Leaving our three small kids in charge of my busy partner in the middle of the school term seemed a bit daunting, but he was more than happy to accept the challenge and let me go on a business trip for a change. Our girls were 4 and 7 in January, our boy turned 6 on the day of the departure - and there was school for the oldest and kindergarten for the two younger ones, violin practices, ballet classes, basketball and football/soccer sessions and so on and so on to be followed. On hindsight, he did a great job, my dear K, so next time such an exciting opportunity arises, I'll accept it without hesitation :)

Meeting new friends

Jacob's Creek invited two Estonians to participate at their first international Our Table event. I was travelling with a well-known Estonian wine expert, Kalev Vapper, whom I knew only from the TV screen. He used to host several TV shows few years ago, and is now the wine buyer for one of the big supermarket chains here in Estonia.

A trip to Down Under is not an easy one, when travelling from such a small country far north. We met at the Tallinn Airport late on a Sunday evening and hopped over to Helsinki in Finland - that's less than 30 minutes up in the air. We then had a few hours to chat in Helsinki, then spent the next 11 hours on a Finnair plane from Helsinki to Singapore. Another few hours of waiting, then 8 more hours on a rather, well, cramped Jetstar carrier to Melbourne. Factor in the different time zones - and here we are, all exhausted and bleary-eyed after arriving in Melbourne on Tuesday morning:

Catching up with old friends #1

While my travel companion headed straight to the hotel, I had a date at the airport. Back in 1992-1993 I spent a year in Denmark as an exchange student, part of an AYUSA programme. It was at the beginning of the programme that I met Anthony, a guy from Melbourne. He actually spent his exchange year in Sweden, but the orientation programme for all the Estonians, Americans and Australians was in Denmark. We've kept touch over the years, and Anthony has actually been to Estonia twice.

I was of course looking forward to catching up with Anthony while in Melbourne, but as it happened, he was due to go on a family holiday in Tanzania on exactly the same dates. We did manage to meet a at the airport, however, and I'm extremely happy about that.

room picnic with Heidi Gruyere from Tasmania, potato crackerthins (Valley Produce Co.), mushroom and verjuice pate (@maggie_beer) also a bottle of @puntrdwines 2015 Pinot Noir from Yarra Valley and some mineral water :) #hotelroompicnic

Melbourne welcomed me with a soaring 33 Celsius - little did I know that this was only the beginning!

Lovely, lovely food #1 (Sezar, Melbourne)

After waving goodbye to Anthony, his lovely wife Maryanne and their two kids, I headed to the hotel. Although the initial plan was to unpack, refresh and get out to explore the city, I  succumbed to sleep and only woke up before the first meal. Our Table group (rather big, 40+) was bussed toGlen Waverly, a suburb of Melbourne, for a welcome dinner and drinks at a trendy Sezar, a restaurant specialising on Modern Armenian food.  I love Armenian food - although there's just lone recipe on this blog -  with its heavy use of lamb, aubergines/eggplants and soft lavosh flatbreads, and I adored the food at Sezar. Served family-style, subtly spiced, well seasoned, cooked to perfection - That lamb! That pumpkin! The place was crowned, the buzz was overwhelming and I left the place very satiated indeed.

 Here's a list of my three favourite dishes from Sezar:

Roasted Pumpkin, Red Pepper Paste, Crispy Bulghur, Sheep's Milk Cheese

*

Kataifi Wrapped Lamb Neck and Sesame Mayo

*

Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder, served with Sour Cherry Sauce, Garlic Yogurt and Tahini Yogurt

*

Twice-Cooked Chicken Wings with Pomegranate Glaze, Pistachio and Coriander

(I'm also a lucky recipient of recipes of all those dishes - thank you, Kora & the Sezar team!)


This being a wine tour, we drank lots of good wine. Our wine ambassador for the night was Stockholm-based Australian musician/oenophile Richard Doumani (see @clarinet2claret), and he had paired the food at Sezar with Reserve Chardonnay Pinot Noir (Vintage 2016), Adelaide Hills Reserve Chardonnay (Vintage 2015), Limited Release Mataro Rosé (2016), Adelaide Hills Reserve Pinot Noir (Vintage 2015), Double Barrel Shiraz Barossa 2015 (which ended up being one of the favourites during the trip). Lots of good Australian wine, lots of it :)

Visit to Steingarten Wineyard, where it all began

To be continued...

Traditional Christmas roast (oven-baked pork shoulder with honey, mustard and rosemary)

From the recipe archives (originally posted in December 2012. Still my favourite Christmas roast).
Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the December issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine, 2012 

What's your traditional Christmas roast (assuming you're eating meat)? Turkey? Goose? Duck?

In Estonia it's definitely pork, though roast poultry has become more popular during recent years. I've been flirting with roast goose and actually served duck leg confit on Christmas Eve this year. It was delicious.

However, for years I've been serving pork roast - a pork shoulder (kaelakarbonaad in Estonian) in a mustard-honey-garlic-rosemary marinade, to be more precise. I love that it's a pretty fool-proof recipe, simple to make, with lots of flavour. And - as an added bonus - any leftovers are excellent on top of rye bread on the days after the party, or as part of a salad. So if you're not making it for a big family feast, you can still make the same amount and simply make several meals out of it.

So here you go. Nami-Nami's traditional Christmas roast. On the photo above, it's accompanied by black pudding ('blood sausages') - another traditional Christmas dish.

Wish you all a lovely festive season!!!

Traditional Christmas roast
(Ahjupraad karbonaadist)
Serves about 10

2 kg boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt)
3-4 Tbsp honey
3-4 Tbsp Dijon mustard or Estonian Põltsamaa mustard
2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs (leaves only)
3 large garlic cloves
2 tsp sea salt

Finely chop garlic cloves and rosemary leaves, then mix with honey and mustard until combined.
Season the meat generously with salt, then spread the mustard-honey mixture all over the pork shoulder and massage into the meat.
Place the pork shoulder into a large ovenproof dish, cover with foil and place into a fridge or cold larder for 1-2 days.
Bring back to the room temperature about an hour before you plan to cook the meat.
If you have a meat thermometer, then stick it into the thickest part of the meat (you can do this through the kitchen foil).
Roast the meat in a pre-heated 160 C / 320 F oven for about 2,5 hours or until the meat thermometer has reached 82-85 C/ 180-185 F.
If you plan to serve gravy with your meat, then pour a cup of hot water into the baking tray half-way through the cooking. 
When the meat is cooked, remove the foil, season the meat once more lightly with salt and then bake for another 10-15 minutes at about 200-220 C/ 390-425 F, just to brown the meat  a little.

Remove the roast pork from the oven, cover again with a kitchen foil and leave to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving into thin slices.

This recipe was also included in my latest cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011. 
I also included the recipe in the December 2012 issue of Kodu & Aed magazine.